Thread-specific Futures
Some languages, such as Alice ML, define futures that are associated with a specific thread that computes the future's value. This computation may be started either eagerly when the future is created, or lazily when its value is first needed. A lazy future is similar to a thunk (in the sense of a delayed computation).
Alice ML also supports futures that can be resolved by any thread, and calls these promises. Note that this usage of promise is different from its usage in E as described above: an Alice promise is not a read-only view, and Alice also does not support pipelining for promises themselves. Instead, pipelining naturally happens for futures (including ones associated with promises).
Read more about this topic: Futures And Promises
Famous quotes containing the word futures:
“One of the things that is most striking about the young generation is that they never talk about their own futures, there are no futures for this generation, not any of them and so naturally they never think of them. It is very striking, they do not live in the present they just live, as well as they can, and they do not plan. It is extraordinary that whole populations have no projects for a future, none at all.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)